War ‘negation of all rights’, says Pope

Vatican City, Sep 13 (IANS/AKI) Pope Francis on Wednesday decried war, calling it “the negation of all rights” and said Catholics should pray for those who have responsibility to prevent it.

“War is the negation of all rights,” Francis tweeted from his nine-language @pontifex account.

“Let us pray for those who have the responsibility to avoid war between peoples,” he said in another post.

The pontiff last week travelled to Colombia on a visit centred on consolidating peace and reconciliation after a 52-year conflict between government forces and left-wing rebels left more than 220,000 people dead and drove almost 8 million from their homes.

Pope Francis is currently the most-followed global leader on Twitter, with close to 34 million followers, analysis from Twiplomacy, a group that tracks the social media use of world leaders, showed last month.